Midnight » Jacob Black

33

"No!"

His frown deepened. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure!"

Chey came to a halt in the middle of the room, glanced over at her, and tilted his head back, a smile curving on his lips. "Do you feel that?"

"What?" Montana accidentally snapped at him. She immediately felt bad and went to apologise, but her uncle hadn't taken any offence. Instead, he lifted a hand and pointed above them.

Montana stared at him as if he'd gone insane.

"Look," Chey prompted.

Witholding an exasperated breath, she followed her uncle's line of sight to glance up at the ceiling. At which point, she realised exactly what he was so fascinated by.

"Do you feel it?"

"Am I..." Montana breathed out, staring up in disbelief at the rapidly flickering lights. She had seen something similar to that before - outside Bella's house, when she'd been angry at Alice. "Am I doing that?"

Chey nodded. "It started happening when you got frustrated. And it's calming now. See?"

He was right. The hurried motion the lights had been flashing was now slowing to longer intervals. Montana caught on to her breathing, and her racing pulse, both of which were steadying. It made sense. She was the one controlling it.

"That's...crazy."

The flickering continued to slow until it had stopped in it's entirety. Montana sat down on the old, tattered green sofa chair. It used to be in the lounge, until they redecorated. Absentmindedly, she began picking at the loose threads of the arm, which was falling apart.

"A similar thing happened when you were around the Cullens," Chey said. "Alice, was it?"

"Yeah."

"You have strong emotions. And I think they're even stronger when they're tethered to a certain person," he hypothesised.

Montana stared at him unsurely for a few seconds. "Jacob?"

She wasn't sure why she asked. Of course it was Jacob.

"Yes." Chey moved closer towards her. "See, I don't think it's just him, though. Your most explosive emotions come from caring so deeply about the people you love. It's just that with Jacob...there's more of a connection that seems to bring it out," Chey began to explain. "Perhaps its to do with the shape-shifter gene?" And that I'm his imprint, Montana thought, but did not voice. "Though, say, Dakota were to be threatened by one of these Cullen's, I can imagine your powers would surface then just as strongly."

Montana cast her mind back to the most recent incidences that had put them in mortal peril – and, to be fair, there had been quite a lot in a very short space of time. But one in particular stood out.

"What about in the forest?" She asked him, looking up to meet his eyes. "You heard about Laurent, right?"

"I did," Chey affirmed.

"Well, nothing happened then," Montana pointed out. "That's the most danger we've ever been in. At least, in my opinion."

Chey studied her for a moment. "What emotion do you remember most from when that happened?"

Montana tried to recall the situation, put herself back in that place; the dread twisting in her gut, the way her heart raced, the blood pounding in her ears...

"I was...scared."

Chey nodded, as if it were the right answer, or at least the one he was expecting. "Fear. It's a blockage."